Safety Net Hospital Invests More Than $300 Million in IT

Denver Health—which sees 150,000 individual patients a year—has invested more than $300 million in groundbreaking health information technology solutions over the last 10 years. Coordination of patient care among its many facilities requires robust health information technology to ensure patient safety as well as fiscal efficiency. Denver Health’s major clinical IT applications are integrated within the Electronic Document Management (EDM) system, which delivers patient records to computers across the organization through a web-based interface. The application allows internal access to electronic clinical data and scanned documents, as well as a Lifetime Clinical Record with comprehensive patient records. Specific EDM applications include:

VaxTrax
The immunization registry automatically prompts clinical providers, no matter who is seeing the patient, that immunizations are due, which improves vaccination rates.

Data Warehouse
Comprehensive electronic repository that stores both clinical and financial data used for research, quality improvement, disease management, strategic analysis, and process improvement.

Computerized Provider Order Entry
A system that allows providers to enter orders into the computer, reducing medication-related errors. Lab turnaround time has dropped by 56 percent; radiology by 62 percent and its pharmacy by 83 percent.

Clinical Dashboard
A single sign-on portal that lets physicians use “smart ID badges” to view all clinical applications without multiple log-ons. Once identity is authenticated, users can go back and forth between clinical applications (e.g., labs to immunizations).

e-Library
Instant online access to 6,000+ full-text medical journals, which helps physicians conduct instant literature searches when evaluating courses of action for patients they are seeing that day, right at that moment.

Picture Archiving Communication System
Digitizes radiological exams. Physicians throughout the organization and in remote locations can do instant review of x-rays, facilitating rapid treatment decisions.

Navicare Bed Monitoring System
Shows current bed availability, which helps prevent long waits in the Emergency Department.

Medication Administration Checking (MAK)
To help reduce errors in dispensing medication, MAK uses a scanner to read bar-codes on medications, employee identification badges and patient wristbands